Kenneth Langley’s Theocentric View of preaching is found in Scott M. Gibson’s and Matthew D. Kim’s Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four views on Preaching Today.
The Theocentric view is like the Christocentric view in some ways. Some who hold to the Christocentric view advocate preaching Christ from every. The Theocentric view advocates preaching God from every text. Both are not using exclusively the historical/grammatical method of interpretation and preaching or teaching only what is in the text. This was the essence of my post “Text-Driven (Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutic) Preaching.”
Read moreIn Part Two, the content of the story will be examined. After the context (STUDY THE CONTEXT: Macro Hermeneutics, Part One) is thoroughly researched, the interpreter moves inside to the content of the text itself. Macro hermeneutics looks at the trees. Micro hermeneutics focuses on the tree. Part two is: EXAMINE THE DETAILS OF THE PASSAGE SELECTED TO PREACH (Micro Hermeneutics, Part Two).
Read moreAllegorical Method of Interpretation
There are two conflicting methods of interpreting Scripture: The grammatical-historical method and the allegorical method. The grammatical-historical method is the method Roy Zuck is teaching in the book of our review “Basic Bible Interpretation.” This method interprets Scripture in the normal sense of language.
Read moreThis post is a review of “Redemptive-Historic View” by Bryan Chapell in Scott M. Gibson and Matthew D. Kim. Homiletics and Hermeneutics.
I agree with Byran Chapell when he warns that the redemptive-historical view of forcing Christ into every text has “been abused, in ways that are now obvious to us, by ancient allegorism that sought to make Jesus ‘magically’ appear in every Bible passage through exegetical acrobatics that stretched logic, imagination, and credulity.”[1] I appreciate Chapell’s candid admission.
Read moreA. J. Jacobs gave what is now a well-known TED talk on My Year of Living the Bible in December 2007. He turned the speech into a book entitled: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. This book was on the NYT bestseller’s list for three months.
Read moreIt is becoming common to hear preachers “finding Jesus” in every text of Scripture. Many name recognized Bible Scholars and popular writers advocate a Christological hermeneutic that forces Christ onto every text. Albert Mohler in He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World wrote:
Every single text of Scripture points to Christ. He is the Lord of all, and therefore He is the Lord of the Scriptures too. From Moses to the prophets, He is the focus of every single word of the Bible. Every verse of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Him, and every story in the Bible ends with Him.[1]
Read morePhilip asks the Ethiopian eunuch a hermeneutic question, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch’s response, “How can I…unless some man explain it to me” (Acts 8:31)?
John in 1 John 2:27 does not contradict: “The anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you.”
Wayne Grudem: "The clarity of Scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that its teachings are able to be understood by all who will read it" (Systematic Theology, p. 108).
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